50★States

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: After an outcry from concerned citizens, the City Council has amended laws regarding celebratory gunfire. The new rule lays out harsher penalties.

ALASKA Fairbanks: Activists pushing against oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge dominated a Bureau of Land Management public scoping meeting this week.

ARIZONA Phoenix: After the death of a fourth dolphin, an area aquatic facility says it will temporarily close for a re-evaluation by outside experts. Officials with Dolphinaris Arizona said the closure starts Friday.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The 32 businesses that a panel approved to sell medical marijuana in the state have been formally awarded their licenses.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: The black dress that a distraught Marilyn Monroe wore to a 1954 press conference in Beverly Hills announcing her separation from baseball legend Joe DiMaggio is going up for auction.

COLORADO Windsor: Veterans of World War II from Colorado received the Legion of Honor from the French government this week.

CONNECTICUT Canterbury: As part of Black History Month, the Prudence Crandall Museum will open Sunday, Feb. 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum usually is only open in the winter by appointment.

DELAWARE Wilmington: A local boy whose last name is Trump was invited by the president and first lady to the State of the Union address Tuesday. Joshua Trump, a sixthgrader at Talley Middle School, could be seen nodding off, making him an instant sensation on Twitter.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: A new art exhibit at a museum in the city shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up. The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, titled “Ivanka Vacuuming,” continues through Feb. 17 at the Flashpoint Gallery.

FLORIDA Key West: City officials have voted to ban sunscreens containing ingredients scientists have said are harmful to the coral reef ecosystem.

GEORGIA Savannah: Officials plan to crack down on underage drinking and littering in Chippewa Square, one of the city’s most popular St. Patrick’s Day party spots.

HAWAII Honolulu: The state says a judge should compel Airbnb to hand over 10 years of receipts and other documents from its hosts.

IDAHO Boise: Legislation to commend the Idaho Music Educators Association and recognize March each year as Music in Our Schools Month in the state is on its way to the full House.

ILLINOIS Springfield: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will offer free admission and special events Tuesday to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday.

INDIANA South Bend: Last week’s deep freeze took a bite out of the Botanical Society of South Bend’s collection of carnivorous plants.

IOWA Fort Dodge: A mural painted on a grain elevator based on photos artist Guido van Helten took of local residents is believed to be the largest in the state.

KANSAS Lawrence: University of Kansas officials say overall crimes reported on the Lawrence campus in 2018 dropped to the lowest level in 10 years.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: The son of a tobacco farmer endorsed a statewide smoking ban in most workplaces this week, a sign of the evolving tobacco politics in a state once dominated by the cancercausing cash crop. Adam Edelen is running for governor.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: The jaguar that escaped last summer and killed nine animals is back on display at the Audubon Zoo.

MAINE Orono: A man who is part of a long tradition of basket makers in a Native American tribe has received a prestigious United States Artists fellowship and its $50,000 award. Gabriel Frey, 38, is a Passamaquoddy basket maker known for adding flourishes of color and other notes of personal expressions.

MARYLAND Ocean City: Rock band Styx is among the acts slated to play the Jellyfish Festival, Ocean City’s newest summer event, to be held June 21-23.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Massachusetts House is working to create a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to the Statehouse in 1965, possibly in plaque form.

MICHIGAN Cheboygan: The annual sturgeon fishing season on Black Lake in Cheboygan County was over in a hurry. Anglers filled the six-fish quota within 78 minutes Saturday.

MINNESOTA St. Cloud: The Paramount Center for the Arts downtown has received a $2 million gift from Dorothy Gorecki and her late husband, Benedict “Ben” Gorecki.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Lawmakers are renewing a push for tax breaks for college graduates who stay in or move to the state.

MISSOURI Jefferson City: Lying about a service animal would be a misdemeanor in the state under legislation that was partly inspired by stories of emotional support snakes and a peacock.

MONTANA Kalispell: Glacier National Park recorded its secondbusiest year ever in 2018.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Motorists who want to support veterans, ornate box turtles or prostate cancer exams could donate with a new license plate, if some state lawmakers have their way. A legislative committee heard pitches Tuesday for nearly a dozen new specialty plates.

NEVADA Reno: Washoe County says it’s trying to boost the state’s efforts to reduce deaths from opioid overdoes by providing jail inmates with overdose education and anti-overdose drugs as they are released.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A new report shows that communities in the state own more than 180,000 acres of undeveloped forests, fields and wetlands that generate nearly $146 million in economic benefits.

NEW JERSEY North Haledon: Local environmentalists have taken a unique step toward saving the monarch butterfly – naming its favorite food, orange milkweed, the borough’s official flower.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Organizers of the centuries-old Fiesta de Santa Fe have changes rules for the highprofile role of La Reina. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports organizers announced they are scrapping a long-standing requirement that only single women without children could serve as Fiesta queen.

NEW YORK New York: The city says it will host a design competition to help create affordable housing on odd-shaped lots that have been vacant for decades.

NORTH CAROLINA Cape Point: Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks asked the public this week to help clean up a shipwreck that spread debris across a mile of beach at Cape Point. The Charlotte Observer reports a shrimp trawler flipped over and broke apart near the beach Monday.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state House has passed bipartisan legislation intended to collect data on missing and murdered Native Americans.

OHIO Cincinnati: The Queen City is one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the U.S., according to a new study. Cincinnati ranked No. 18 out of 100 cities in the index by advocacy group New American Economy.

OKLAHOMA Norman: The University of Oklahoma’s chief financial officer says in a report that the college’s financial condition remains “very troubling” despite recent efforts.

OREGON Salem: Democrats in the state Senate have passed out of committee a measure to cap rent hikes.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: The top federal prosecutor in the city has filed suit to stop a nonprofit from opening a first-in-the-nation supervised drug injection site.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: A lawmaker has reintroduced a bill to create a statewide animal abuser registry. Democratic Rep. Arthur Corvese’s legislation aims to prevent people with a history of mistreating animals from owning more animals.

SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: The commissioning ceremony for one of the Navy’s newest combat ships is set for next month. City officials say the USS Charleston will be commissioned March 2.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: The South Dakota House has approved a bill aimed at addressing concerns about a polygamist group’s Black Hills outpost by making it a misdemeanor not to report births and deaths.

TENNESSEE Memphis: State parks are looking for volunteers to help fight invasive plant species. Tennessee State Parks says the so-called Weed Wrangle is set for March 2.

TEXAS Austin: Rattlesnakes slithered through parts of the Capitol this week to help promote an upcoming reptile roundup. Members of the Sweetwater Jaycees were in Austin on Tuesday to support what’s billed as the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A proposed amendment that would replace much of the gender-specific terminology in the Utah Constitution has moved through a state Senate panel.

VERMONT Burlington: A marina-inprogress will help pedestrians and cyclists “connect the dots” between a growing number of amenities along the waterfront, its co-developer says.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation that would carry out the state’s promise to Amazon for up to $750 million in incentives if it creates almost 38,000 jobs at its new headquarters.

WASHINGTON Olympia: Environmental and public health groups are trying to block the spraying of a pesticide on oyster and clam beds in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A lawmaker says the state has been paying insurance on thousands of vehicles it doesn’t actually own.

WYOMING Laramie: Seven members of the Black 14 will return to the University of Wyoming campus this week for the school’s celebration of Black History Month. Fourteen members of Wyoming’s 1969 football team were dismissed for wanting to wear black armbands in the Cowboys’ game against BYU to protest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ former policy barring black men from the priesthood.